


Assistance

by Nny



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Caretaking, M/M, Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22188529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nny/pseuds/Nny
Summary: Jon returns to the Archive; Martin provides assistance.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims
Comments: 9
Kudos: 140





	Assistance

When he was a kid one of the others called him Tin-Tin. He'd read the books, and Martin had had a particularly unfortunate haircut at the time, and it had stuck around for a few years after that - probably because of how much he'd visibly hated it. You had to not react, they always told you - all the teachers, and the dinner ladies, and for a brief while there the counsellor. But Martin had never been particularly good at not wearing his heart and his mind and his soul out on his sleeve, especially when he was wound up. 

Mart, he'd been in college, and he'd hated that almost as much. They'd already had a Martin, see, and he'd come along second. He'd not really got along well at college - hadn't know exactly what he'd wanted to do - and he'd felt a sick kind of relief that he'd tortured himself over when he'd finally had to drop out. Mart'd died right along with his vague dreams of higher education, and he'd mostly been fine about letting them both go. 

So Martin he'd been, mostly. It was fine. It was bland, and nondescript, and close enough to Mark and Marcus that he could pretend that people hadn't forgotten his name. 

Nobody'd ever said it like Jon, though. Elliding and almost swallowing the second syllable, deep in his mouth. Curling his tongue around it. It'd - well, it'd sparked a fondness for his name that Martin certainly hadn't ever expected. Especially not from _Jon_ , God - he'd been such an _ass_ when Martin had started working with him. In all honesty, he hadn't much improved. 

Except for the way he carried so _much_ on his shoulders. Except for the way he - the statements, and how they took so much out of Martin every time he read one; how he felt like he was a little lost under a mask of someone different, and how the story felt tugged out of him and took a little of himself with it. And Jon just - just _kept doing them_. Kept reading, and caring, and looking steadily more worn. 

Except for the way that he said Martin's name, and how he softly apologised. 

Except for the time-faded traces Martin could remember of Jon's smile. 

He didn't actually know that Jon had got back to the archive, for a while. It felt like the place ought to change a little when Jon was in it, because they weren't complete without him. 

That wasn't romantic nonsense. It _wasn't_. It was becoming clearer with everything that happened that there was something _special_ about Jon, something everyone - not just Martin - could see. The Archive ought to feel - safer, maybe, with Jon in it. Or... he didn't know. Satisfied? Instead he was chatting with Melanie in the kitchen, the kettle bubbling merrily way, when he heard his voice from the doorway. 

"Martin." 

Jon looked - he looked half-dead. Worn out and scraped thin, and he was leaning against the doorframe with a bag hanging from his hand; he hadn't even taken a moment to drop off his things before coming here. He looked travel-rumpled and his hair was an absolute state, like he'd been running his fingers through it all day. _Martin's_ fingers itched to push it back into place. 

"Black coffee?" he said, already reaching for another mug, but Jon just shook his head. 

"No, I - could you come to my office in a moment?" His voice was threadbare, too. "When you - when you're done. Of course." 

"Oh, no, I'm fine without tea," Martin said, and Melanie laughed softly. 

"His master's voice," she said, in that way she had of aiming her cruelties just right. It was too quiet for Jon to hear, and Martin elbowed her in the side because it wasn't - it wasn't _like_ that, it wasn't ever _going_ to be like that, it was just the way Jon looking vulnerable made things happen in the empty spaces around Martin's heart. 

They didn't talk as they walked through the corridors. It was for the best - Jon was pretty terrible at small talk, and Martin had a lot of things he really shouldn't say. Obviously there weren't many windows - archives didn't have much use for daylight - but there was something about the warm glow from the bulbs that suggested the empty hours of the afternoon, just too early to start counting down to home. 

Jon's office door was standing open, and Jon just let out a slow breath, as though it wasn't anything he hadn't expected. With Elias around, Martin supposed, there wasn't all that much point to trying to be private. 

Jon closed the door behind them and then took a moment standing there facing it. Martin was close enough that he could see where his knuckles pressed pale against his skin as he gripped the handle. 

"I just wanted -" Jon said, and then he wobbled. His knees went out from underneath him, almost. Just for a moment - he caught his balance quickly, an emotion that wasn't annoyance on his face - but Martin had already reached out for him and was holding onto his wrist. 

"Are you all right?" 

"Yes," Jon said, but he didn't have that rock-solid certainty any more. "Yes, of course." He cleared his throat and stood straighter. "I wanted to ask you about the statements. If you had any that needed doing, where you were planning to go next." 

"Come on, Jon," Martin said, and he meant to hit cajoling more than exasperated, but worry always leaked out of him in unhelpful ways. "You've just got back, you're _exhausted_ , you can't be meaning to -"

"I _need_ to." Jon's voice was - it was filled with a kind of self-recrimination. There was weight to his words, too - like he didn't just mean that he was a workaholic. Like he meant something... more. 

"You're going to fall over," Martin said, and it was a little unnerving how easily Jon followed along when he tugged on his arm, pulled him over to the desk chair and nudged him into it. 

"I'll fall over if I don't," Jon grumbled, and for all he was Martin's boss, he didn't half look like a kid insisting that he didn't need to go to bed. Martin reached out to ruffle Jon's hair and Jon leaned into it - just the barest amount, only just about enough to feel, so Martin kept his hand there, his fingers combing through the strands softly, his heart making a home for itself in his mouth. 

"I'm worried about you," Martin said, soft. Jon huffed out a laugh that really didn't sound like a laugh; something that had started out as a laugh but had been sanded down into something new. 

"You're not the only one," he said. "But I - I can't explain it, Martin. I _need_ to take a statement, and I ought to - I've been away so long I should take one of the harder ones, shouldn't I?" 

"Oh, Jon," Martin said, and Jon let out a stuttering breath. 

"I'm the Archivist," he said, hopeless, like someone who's been fighting too long. "What else am I going to do?" 

"All right," Martin said. "So I'll tell you what's been happening here in your absence. Plenty of creepy, I promise, and maybe - if it's both of us -" 

Jon tilted his head back to look up at Martin, his hair tugging a little against Martin's fingers, and there was a fragile sort of expression on his face that Martin hadn't ever seen. 

"You'd do that?" he said, and Martin - it was too important to ever take the moment seriously, so he shrugged and rolled his eyes.

"Go on then," he said. "Take out your tape recorder." 

Jon pulled it out of his bag. It'd been through the wars too. He placed it on the desk in front of him, and started it with a gentle click. Martin noticed that he leaned back again, though. In reach of Martin's hand. 

"Statement of Martin Blackwood," Jon said, his voice quiet but strengthening, his voice softening and warming and curling a little around Martin's name. 

"Statement begins," Martin said.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if I'll write any more for this fandom, but this is my first time listening to a fiction podfic and I've been rather sucked in. It's interesting how easy is it is to have the voices clear in your head as you write. 
> 
> And I'm an absolute sucker for Martin Blackwood, please let it be known.


End file.
